Butch Huskey, who was the penultimate Met to wear No. 42 and spent parts of five seasons in Queens, has died, the team announced Friday.
He was 54 years old.
Huskey died from a blood clot in his lung, The Post’s Dan Martin confirmed.
“I just want to acknowledge this solemn day with the passing of Butch Huskey this morning,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said. “Just want to send prayers and thoughts to his family. I know all of our Mets family is thinking of him and the people who love him today.”
Mets player Butch Huskey follows through on a double in the first inning against the Brewers
on Friday, May 22, 1998. New York Post
Huskey was the Mets’ seventh-round pick in 1989 out of high school, and he made his MLB debut four years later before going on to appear in 414 games for the Mets — while also spending time with the Mariners, Twins, Red Sox and Rockies. He hit .264 with a .740 OPS with the Mets while playing both infield and outfield, and in 1997 he launched 24 homers.
Until 2016, Huskey held the Mets record for most RBIs in an inning after collecting five during the sixth frame of a 1998 game against the Marlins. After the 1998 season, the Mets traded Huskey to the Mariners, and he was dealt again to the Red Sox — a team that ended up making the ALCS in 1999 before losing to the Yankees and falling short of breaking the franchise’s World Series curse.
But a core part of Huskey’s legacy with the Mets — as a former hyped prospect who, in a 1993 article in The Post, was dubbed as their “third baseman of the near future” — came with his jersey number. He wore No. 42 when Jackie Robinson’s number was universally retired on April 15, 1997 and said on a Mets broadcast in 2024 that he remembers the “whole night” when Robinson’s wife Rachel, commissioner Bud Selig and then-President Bill Clinton made the announcement during the fifth inning of the Mets’ game against the Dodgers.
Mets manager Bobby Valentine is ecstatic after Butch Huskey (42) hit a home run in the sixth inning during a game against the Padres on August 23, 1997. The home run was Huskey’s third hit of the game, making the score 4-2. 8.23.97
“That’s one of the best memories I had in my lifetime,” Huskey said on the 2024 broadcast, “and it’ll always stay with me.”
Huskey, in a 2024 press conference, said he didn’t have an inkling about the ceremony. He knew something big was happening because of Clinton and the presidential security detail, but “I didn’t grasp how big it was until that happened.” Initially, he didn’t think he’d be able to wear his number anymore. But he became one of the players grandfathered in and allowed to continue wearing 42.
Huskey recalled on a 2024 episode of “Amazin’ Conversations with Jay Horowitz” that he wrote an essay in high school about the legacy of Robinson after an English teacher — who loved Robinson and knew that Huskey loved baseball — brought the paper idea to him. And, as of then, he still had that No. 42 jersey from the retirement night with Rachel’s autograph. Mo Vaughn, who was another player grandfathered into wearing that number, was the last Mets player to don No. 42.
“It meant the world to me and not just myself but a lot of other kids, people of color” Huskey said on the 2024 broadcast about wearing Robinson’s number. “He went through things that paved for us to have it not as hard as he did, and I just don’t think I could’ve done what he did to go that route with it.”